𝐌𝐀𝐃 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐏𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐑 | Percy Jackson¹

1. 𝘞𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨

"Hmm," Veronica hummed stiffly.

"That concludes all the important stuff, anyways," Jane said. "But since I didn't get a chance to ask you earlier because you ran in here and immediately began talking about Chiron, how have you been recently?"

Veronica pursed her lips at the question. "Better," she said. "I've gotten to appreciate some movies I've missed out on and some older ones, too."

Jane nodded. "That's good. What kind of movies have you been watching?"

Veronica started to list them on her fingers. "I've been rewatching the Disney Renaissance era films, and old movies from the seventies and eighties," she told Jane. "And I've gotten into fantasy shows like Charmed."

"Charmed, a show where the main characters use a spellbook," Jane noted.

"Please don't ruin Charmed for me," Veronica confessed. "I don't want to associate it with Marjorie."

Jane shook her head, arms raised in surrender. "Okay, I won't. Whatever you say." She seemed to be giving some thought to something. "How's Rachel?" she then asked.

Veronica failed to hide her smile. "She's coming over for the weekend before she goes to freshman orientation on Monday."

"That's good," Jane said. "And everything with Rachel has been perfectly fine, I assume?"

"Just fine," Veronica agreed. "I've got it perfectly planned out."

"I'm happy there's something that you can maintain peace with," Jane said. Veronica smiled wider as Jane looked at her clock. "Okay, where the heck is Tina?"

Just as she asked, a knock at the door sounded. "Oh. There she is," Jane said softly, smoothing out her clothes.

Veronica grabbed her things as quickly as possible and started to leave. "Veronica?" Jane called, making her stop and turn back.

"Yes?"

"Your mother's spellbook is important somehow. She wouldn't have left it for you if it wasn't," Jane said gently. "I'm not trying to push you. But... just think about it, okay?"

Veronica sighed. "I'll think about it, Jane," she said before she turned the handle and walked out.

♛⸻𖥸⸻♛

May 30, 2008

PERCY JACKSON WAS IN A PICKLE.

In the time since he'd kissed Veronica Sawyer in the gardens of Olympus, he'd been confronted by these horrible things called puberty and hormones.

In a panic after Veronica had told him they were moving too fast for people that'd met and befriended each other in a week, Percy had asked her to pretend that it'd never happened...

Only for him to never be able to forget it happened.

He blamed Aphrodite. Whatever she'd done, it was like some magic trick he couldn't shake off, plaguing his mind every time he thought about Veronica. She moved to Chicago after agreeing to live with a woman named Valentina Bailey. He figured she'd be in New York for the summer because of camp. She'd let him know if she wouldn't be at camp, after all. She still talked to him semi-regularly. In fact, he'd like to think they'd gotten closer.

So he felt guilty about wanting to kiss Veronica. Percy felt like an idiot for having asked her to ignore the event only to fall for her like some bad romcom star.

"The Fates have to hate me," he groaned, throwing himself onto his bed as he poured over the Ancient Greek translations of Veronica's songs that she'd sent him. So far, there'd been three—Tell Me More, Watercolor Valentine, and Spring Fling. He hadn't read the last one yet, but Watercolor Valentine was his favorite of the formers. He wasn't sure why.